Villa Enrique

Villa Enrique is nestled in the little enclave of Dempsey Hill. A spanish restaurant that serves up traditional fare in a cosy atmosphere. I went there for dinner with my family today, after visiting the Singapore Botanic Gardens for an opera concert that turned out to be next saturday -.- anyway, since Dempsey Hill was nearby, we decided to pop over for dinner. 

We stared with a tapas platter (shown above) which is a sampling of 5 cold tapas and 5 hot tapas, some of which are not on the menu. Each little piece was bursting with flavour and successfully whet our appetite for the main courses that followed. My only gripe - most of the meats were cured, which meant they were EXTREMELY salty. Thankfully, they came on a little slice of toast which slightly alleviated the saltiness.

Oh yes, before our tapas, we were served a delightful basket of bread. When you are starving, a tiny bun is a great saviour,  isn’t it? (: The bread at Villa Enrique came with garlic spread, instead of the usual butter, which added an interesting kick to the bread. Yummy!

The main courses followed. We ordered three to share among the 5 of us, and it was enough to fill our tummies to our content (:

First up was the tenderloin beef. Honestly, what i loved most about the dish was the SALAD. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar (*squeals!!!!*), it was crunchy, tasty with just the right amount of sourness to make it so appetizing (: The potato cubes that came with the beef were awesome as well, and so were the mushrooms which were so tasty and melt-in-your-mouth that i was picking out as many as i could find.  The beef itself, on the other hand, was slightly disappointing as i hoped that it would be more tender.

Next, was the squid ink paella. Its a slightly sticky, short-grained rice, which is ALL BLACK in this case, due to the squid ink. It was very fragrant and each mouthful was so infused with flavour, it was easily my favourite dish of the day (:

Finally, the lamb shank. Let me clarify, I DO NOT like lamb, but in this case, papa said that it was nice, and made all of us try it, which was why I took a bite. Surprisingly, it was not that bad. The taste of lamb was rather muted (phew!), and the meat was juicy.

The decor of Villa Enrique was cosy, and I loved this painting that was the feature of the restaurant.

Villa Enrique

Blk 10 #01-23

Dempsey Road

Tel: +65 6476 2311

Lunch: 12pm-2.30pm

Afternoon Tapas & cocktails: from 5pm onwards

Dinner: 7pm-12am (Mon-Thu & Sun)           

7pm-1am (Fri & Sat)